Reviewing what you heard today, describe a moment in your practice when you saw a child in one of the developmental stages. Post your story to the board.

[Meredith Pizzi]

[Coleen Shanagher]

I first want to say how much I enjoyed the concrete nature of today’s lectures! I feel like I really learned a lot. I am currently working for a private practice that has music together, so I have seen a lot of group music for young children and it was really interesting for me to look back and think about which children would have fallen into which stages. As I mentioned before, what I’m really looking for from this training is specificity and a set of intervention skills. So knowing which stage a child is in is so helpful. I had a new client the other day who was super adorable. He is four years old and developmentally delayed. I believe he is in the control stage. He was doing a lot of spontaneous vocalization, which I assured the mother was his way of moving toward verbal communication. She said she was relieved to hear that because it sort of drives her crazy. I also noticed he was still feeling me out as I played at the piano. I was playing chords toward the low end of the piano and when he came over I would play a quick high cluster. At which point he would run back to mom. What started out (As I saw it) as him working on independence, became a game as he then came over and took my hand to the piano for me to play the high cluster. I think knowledge of his developmental state helped me to know where to focus my intervention and adapt my methods within the session.

[Erin Spring]

I have primarily worked with adults in my practice, so its hard for me to think of a clear example. I do remember a sweet girl who was born with a terrible diagnose and was placed on our hospice service at age 3. While she was 3 years, she did not display the typical developments of a 3 year old, but she LOVED music. She was limited in her movement, and was non-verbal some due to the fact that she had a trach tube, but when a song she liked was played, she would smile brightly and bounce herself as best she could in her special seat to the pulse of the music. She could reach out and grasp, so I gave her lots of opportunities for choices, and she took them, picking instruments of different shapes and colors. Based on her physical responses, affect, and eye focus, she would communicate music preference, and tempo preferences, to me too. Even though she was not a typically developing 3 year old, in many ways, musically, she was…

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

Thanks for this story, Erin. Development is dynamic. Our goals center on providing opportunities in which movement from one level to the next can happen. Sometimes, though, the disability is too great for vertical movement. Then we look to expand the level horizontally by providing as many experiences in as many different ways within that level as we can.

[Kehlen Bushatz]

I was working with a preschooler who had autism. We were singing a song about his name… the words were “Hooray for (name). Hooray for (name). Someone in the room is singing hooray for (name). 1,2,3,4 who we gonna sing for? (Name) that’s who! This little boy didn’t talk or interact much with others and maintain eye-contact for very long outside of music experiences. When I started singing he would immediately look, rock his body to the rhythm of the song, smile, raise his hands like he was cheering during the “hooray part”, and say the “oo” sound in “hooray”. Part of me thinks he could be in the trust stage because he shows pleasure hearing a familiar song, moves rhythmically to music, and he looks at the face of the singer. Part of me also thinks he was in the independence stage because he was rocking rhythmically, imitating movements, imitating vocalizations, and showing preferences… this was always a favorite and he got a big smile on his face when it started and while it was being sung. I’m not sure!

[Anonymous]

Kehlen I would love to know more about your “Hooray” song. Is this something that you could share with the group? Not sure if you have a program to dictate songs or could do it by hand. But it sounds like a great resource!

[Keeley St Clair]

I remember facilitating an early intervention group in the spring time that illustrated three of the developmental stages perfectly. This was in a classroom environment and the children ranged from 2-4 years – quite the spectrum for one classroom! During a gathering song, one of the youngest was nestled in with the teacher watching with sideways glances. He appeared to be in the trust stage.
A little girl about 3 y/o was spontaneously clapping and singing some words to the song, appearing to be in the independence stage. Lastly a boy (almost 4) was wandering the room and calling out the names of the next child to sing to – effectively demonstrating the control stage.
It was a great group to learn from for sure!

[Kathryn Opher]

I have been working with a newly diagnosed 3 year old> His stages are all over the place but the reminder that trust and independence can occur simultaneoously comes to mind. He wants to be independent but because he still has trust work to do-he vacilates a lot. This lecture also helped me to remember to use minor modes. Like Beth said-this same boy can match pitch much better in minor–that sounds like a study needs to be done.

[Lauren Stoner]

Like Erin, in recent years I have primarily been working with adults. However, I have seen a drastic change in the musical development of children through my relationship with my nephew. Months will go by before I am able to see him. It is wonderful and almost miraculous at times to see his musical development. I think he likes staying with me as I am the aunt with all the instruments. However, as this is not a clinical experience, I will share a story directly relating to my clinical experience. I was working with a little boy with down’s syndrome for a short period of time. Several of his developmental skills were delayed, but he was in the independence stage. It was wonderful to see him search out music and musical sounds. He would grasp and experiment with what was available in the environment. During a session, he began with body movements and a melody that I was not able to recognize due to lack of tonality at his stage. He became frustrated with me as I was not able to identify the song, even though I repeated the tonalities back to him. When I finally was able to recognize the song, this further fostered the other stages of development as it improved trust and reciprocal musical play.
I would like to take this time to apologize for my late post. I had some personal issues come up, and my internet was down for a substantial amount of time.

[Anonymous]

I’m glad you were able to get back to us Lauren! Thanks for sharing!

[Jennifer Sokira]

Sorry to be late to the week three party! I would like to share about two things:
1) I will be honest and share that my most present thoughts about musical developmental stages are in relation to my two sons! I am not doing regular early childhood groups at this time, but I have been enjoying really looking at them through the clear lens provided by this course. Ryan, 5.5 y is in the stage of responsibility and he really is digging into the layers of music more than we’ve ever seen him. He is singing on pitch, playing songs by ear, composing and improvising more meaningfully on the piano and voice. Such an exciting transition to see him growing into this phase. Zachary, 18 months is entering the control phase. I am enjoying hearing the melodic nature of his vocalizations, and I am hearing songs and pieces of songs that he initiates more than before. He’s loving to make sounds on the piano and on anything he can bang, including doing some drumming on his high chair tray together with me. He is imitating lots of words and sounds, but his favorites all have to do with the Sesame Street characters from his favorite books, especially Cookie Monster (which means we are making up lots of Cookie songs lately too)

On a separate note, I am also working with a pre-teen with some attachment issues, so my assessment has included thinking about ways in which I can provide age appropriate bonding opportunities at the awareness and trust levels- this framework has been a resource in more ways than I had expected!

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

Thanks, Jen. I have had many music therapists say that they use the framework to understand development throughout all ages and areas of practice.

[Petra Paukova]

Hello all, I am very very late. My son is on two weeks and two days fall break and keeps me busy 24/7….:) Anyway, I really enjoyed the simplicity of Musical Developmental levels. It is easy to remember and use in practice. I was also thinking of my son when he was little. Since he has autism, his development was different and I did not know that for a long time, since he is my only child. I wish all moms with little ones could have this info to recognize possible delays and oddities in their children (for example joint attention). My son did not speak and did not make almost any sounds, even there was a lot of music at our home. But he was imitating opera singers from TV, being exactly on the same pitch like the singer. I do not remember exactly but I know he was musical long time before he started to speak.
Anyway, in my internship I worked with little boy with Down syndrome. He loved music, and I think he was in Independence level. Always trying to escape from me. So, I stopped the music and he came back pretty soon. Music is a motivator. He also displayed desire for control, but I think it has something to do with Down syndrom and it’s “stubbornness…..? 🙂

[Andrea U]

I have a story that is similar to Petras Downs Syndrome client. This particular client was living in a rehabilitation hospital and definitely had a sense of stubborness from Down`s. I believe, from the readings and lectures, this child was in the independence stage. Thankfully, she was just beginning to walk and would love to be on the mats in her hospital room so she could stomp around. I was given the goal of getting to wear glasses by using music as a motivator. Initially, when I put on the glasses for her she would rip it off her face. Therefore, I guided her in putting on the glasses, rather than I forcibly putting them on for her. At the end of three weeks, she created a sign to ask for her glasses or she would just put them on herself. Six weeks later, she was comfortably putting them on for ten minutes as a time. I believe we let her be independent and to let herself get comfortable with the glasses which was later generalized to the other professionals.

[Sarah Tree]

During my clinical internship, I worked with a 7-year-old boy with severe autism. He was non-verbal, only ever making grunting sounds, which generally occurred when he was excited. Though it would be difficult to characterize his verbal music making skills as being anywhere beyond the trust stage, his instrumental explorations lead me to believe he was functioning somewhere between the independent and control stages. He really enjoyed instruments, particularly the xylophone, piano, and rhythm sticks. He showed the joy in the abilty to control his dynamics and tempo, and often wanted to take the lead, showing me which instrument he would prefer to play, and how he wanted to play it.

[Toni]

One of the neatest phases I enjoy witnessing is the control stage. Especially when a child spontaneously dances to music or sings spontaneous songs.

[Shannon Kiley]

It’s interesting how children move through these stages; in thinking of my little honeys, especially since I have few typically-developing clients, many of them show responses in several levels based on their individual abilities and limitations. One of the little ones I work with is incredibly physically weak due to her illnesses; she can locate sounds, can turn toward or away from music or people, and generally most vocal responses seem to fit in the Awareness & Trust stages (although this seems to be somewhat of a matter of the strength required for vocalizing). However, instrumentally, she has some maracas that she shakes as prompted, grasps them and transfers them from hand to hand, and uses them to play other instruments like a drum; these responses fit pretty squarely in the Independence stage. Overall I would place her somewhere between Trust & Independence. One of my other little guys is definitely in the Control stage; he loves to spontaneously sing his favorite songs, loves to play rhythms on his desk for short periods of time, and will reliably clap/stomp/”Hooray” to “Happy and You Know It” (but always in that order regardless of the prompt!).

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